Black Hills and Beyond: Custer State Park Wildlife Loop, Hikes, and Reptile Gardens
We were taking full advantage of our first weekend in and around the Black Hills of South Dakota. That Saturday led us to Mount Rushmore, Iron Mountain Road, and the Museum of Geology. If you missed our recap of those adventures, you can find it here.
Sunday was another early rise for us. Our plan was to drive down to Custer State Park in the morning, so we would take Wildlife Loop Road at a time with less people and more animals. We crossed our fingers that wildlife would be abundantly visible.
We stopped at the entrance kiosk to pay our fee ($20 for a week-long pass to the state park) and grabbed an informational pamphlet, which had a map, some lists of park locations and activities, and descriptions of the wildlife in the area. Then we headed on our way.
The Wildlife Loop Road is one of the few famous scenic drives in the area, and even without wildlife sightings, it's absolutely gorgeous. The rolling hills seem to continue forever, and in the morning sunlight, everything had a serene glow. It felt like we were driving through a painting.
We didn't have to wonder about seeing wildlife for long. Soon, we came upon a herd of bison. Not quite a jam, even though the herd did cause us to catch up to a couple cars in front of us. Unlike the previous jams we were caught in, where the bison were meandering and grazing, this herd was on a mission. Most were moving quite fast, except for a few stragglers in the back. Where were they going? No one knew, not even the ranger working at the Bison Center. She told us that when they're going from one place to the next, they tend to follow the matriarch in a single-file line. We followed alongside their pilgrimage until we reached the Bison Center, then watched them roam from afar.
The Bison Center was built in 2022 and is a beautiful state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the lives of these American Buffalo. The exhibits are outstanding and it was nice to finally learn more about these amazing creatures we've been encountering over the past several weeks. Events are sometimes held at the center, and the grounds have a few hiking trails that we opted out of for timing purposes, but are not too long or strenuous for those who wish to break up their scenic drive with some walking.
We left the Bison Center and soon came to a different kind of traffic jam. You wouldn't believe the audacity, to just stand there in the road like that. Those asses!
The Custer State Park "begging burros" used to work as pack animals to help visitors ascend Black Elk Peak, the country's highest peak east of the Rockies. When those trips ended, the park retired the donkeys and released them. Now, this small feral herd delights visitors by giving us all an experience that's basically the opposite of a typical wildlife encounter. We're allowed to get close, and trust me, the donkeys wouldn't have it any other way. Even though they mostly eat prairie grass, they remain hopeful that a friendly human will give them an extra tasty treat. When we drove the Wildlife Loop, we came upon a begging burro party that was already in full swing. People were out of their vehicles, giving the donkeys apples and carrots. Other people remained in their cars and set up more of a food takeout window. We wondered if visitors were actually allowed to feed them, or if everyone was just blatantly ignoring the rules. I did some research later on and, to the best of my knowledge, understand that feeding them isn't condoned, but it's not actually harmful the way feeding an actual wild animal is. I will say, though, it provided some good entertainment!
The best part of hanging out with the donkeys, though, was getting to meet the latest addition to their family, this foal who was born at the end of July.
Our remaining wildlife sightings included a couple distant deer and the prairie dogs. Then we continued onto the "non-wildlife" part of the loop. Basically, Wildlife Loop Road is a U-shape, but most people complete it with a drive from Blue Bell Lodge back to the visitor's center. This northern section of the loop has some options for stopping at overlooks, the lodges, and hiking trails.
We stopped at Mount Coolidge, which is a mile of winding roads with steep drop-offs, but with a summit view at the end. That said, we actually found the journey better than the destination here, due to the fact that the summit houses an energy and communications tower that has tons of wires strung from it. The wires get in the way of any nice views. The road leading up to it, on the other hand, offers some insane views of the mountains and spires in the distance...if you're comfortable taking your eyes off the road.
Across the street from Mount Coolidge is the Heddy Draw Overlook. This overlook has a really cool picnic shelter and a trail that may or may not lead somewhere; we walked it for about a half-mile out and back. It seemed like a nice place to stop off for a picnic and stretch, but the views were mostly of trees. We did, however, see a view of Mount Coolidge from below.
We were piecemealing some hikes together as to not be sitting in the truck all day, and when reading our informational brochure, I made a mental note of a couple shorter hikes we could do quickly as we drove the loop. The first was the mile-long loop around Legion Lake. Even though the trail is rated as easy, it has lots of little boulder climbs up rugged terrain. It was a lot of fun and offered beautiful views of the lake. Up the street, we pulled off at the Norbeck Outdoor Education Center and hiked the Cairn Trail, which is short but fairly steep. We booked it through the trail because a storm was rolling in and we could hear the thunder boomers above. It was quite a workout to practically trail run up that hill!
We made a few changes that day due to the weather. We had wanted to squeeze in a few more outdoor activities, but after waiting out the storm, we had time for only one: Reptile Gardens. This is a mostly outdoor reptile zoo, with a few exhibits indoors. The zoo has all the reptiles you would expect, including alligators, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles, and more, but they also serve as a sanctuary for other species, such as birds, fish, arachnids, and prairie dogs. We arrived with only a short while to spare before the alligator show, where we got to learn about the various gators and crocs that were living in the habitat. Later on we watched the snake show. Both of these shows run multiple times throughout the day.
The zoo is set up to be family friendly, and even though the exhibits were wonderfully educational and entertaining, with some also being interactive, children can also enjoy a little old-timey country "town" setup, as well as various little amusements throughout the zoo. For the adults, the zoo doubles as a botanical garden. We saw some exhibits that left us feeling all warm and fuzzy, like the giant tortoise petting area and the up-close-and-personal look at the prairie dogs. Other exhibits, we just needed to remind ourselves that snakes swallowing rodents whole is just a part of life. I took some videos, but I don't think anyone will want to see that. Instead, I'll just share the warm fuzzy video.
With day 2 of adventures in the books, we were feeling good about everything we accomplished over our weekend. However, we really wanted to do the remaining activities that we had to push because of the storm. We made plans to take a few hours the next day off work. We'd need to brave the heat for the outdoor excursions, but we were looking forward to what was in store.